Bananas

So I was at Kroger for lunch, hitting their salad bar and hoping that it contained fresh and crisp produce this Friday as opposed to limp and wilty lettuce, broccoli, and cauliflower a week ago (my hope was rewarded, FYI), and I spied some red bananas in the fruit section of the store.  If you've never seen a red banana before, they are about 1/2 the size of a "normal" banana (i.e. the type of banana you picture in your mind when you're thinking about bananas) and look like this:

Now, normally I would not have stopped or thought twice about red bananas (imported from Ecuador, no less -- talk about not eating locally), but I had heard a story yesterday on NPR about, of all things, bananas.  Specifically, it was on Fresh Air with Terry Gross, apparently a replay from a 2008 interview.  Click here to go to the NPR page about the interview and listen to the story.  Its pretty interesting.

Anyway, the NPR story said that the types of bananas that we eat here in the States, which are called Cavendish bananas, are, apparently at least to banana snobs, really crappy bananas as far as taste.  So I decided to buy a bundle of the red bananas (despite the fact that, as I previously noted, their Ecuadorian heritage was so decidedly against how I want to try and eat locally-grown produce), to see what the fuss was all about.  As of the time of this post, I have yet to try them, so I cannot speak as to whether or not the red banana is more of a treat for the palate as a "regular" banana, but I'm holding out hope.  After all, here's the way Wikipedia describes them:

They are smaller and plumper than the common Cavendish banana.  When ripe, raw red bananas have a flesh that is cream to light pink in color. They are also softer and sweeter than the yellow Cavendish varieties, with a slight raspberry-banana flavor.

Sounds fantastic!  And we all know that Wikipedia is 100% accurate and truthful so there's no worrying about this being misinformation.  (I'll let you know my impression of the Ecuadorian red banana as soon as I chomp into one).

With banansas still on my mind after my Kroger trip, I could not help thinking about how bananas have been so effectively utilized by the auteurs of our cinematic arts over the years.  And I keep coming back to the best banana scene committed to film.  Sure, there was a Woody Allen movie actually called Bananas, but I've not seen it so it doesn't count (does it even feature actual bananas?  I have no idea).  No, when it comes to bananas in the movies, this scene (or, rather, two different scenes involving the same banana aspect), trumps all others.  I dare you to disagree with me:

Which leads to this:

Ladies and Gentlemen, the best film of the 1980's an the best ever use of a banana in the movies.